Malcolm wrote: > so you are deserting us for the warmer France and from what I read > much cheaper boating. > > Is French diesel still a lot cheaper than here -
Sorry to dispel the myths but, based on our recent three month trip (May, June and July) the weather is (in the central Bourgogne region) not much better than here. May and half of June were very wet, to the point that we were getting really peed off with paddling in the mud of the boatyard while we repainted Brunel (under cover in a large paint shed that we had rented). The weather improved as June finished and through July but it wasn't consistent. We had 37 deg C in the boat on some days and then it rapidly deteriorated to massive thunderstorms the like of which I have rarely experienced. We probably didn't have more than about a week of lovely hot weather before you had some less than lovely weather. This is the second year that they have had poor summer weather in that region. Fuel costs have risen massively in France. You have to use DERV in pleasure boats there and road DERV was costing between 1 euro 38 and 1 euro 51 depending on the filling station. With the present poor euro/pound exchange rate it means that they are paying about the same as us (like for like currency for a Brit visitor). In the ports fuel costs more, of course (like boatyards here), and you could expect to pay 1 euro 67 ish (and I heard of one that was selling at nearly 2 euros/litre). A boat like mine uses between 2 and 3 litres per hour. The alternative is lugging jerry cans of fuel from the local supermarket at each shopping visit or trying to persuade a local fuel depot to deliver by tanker (but there are minimum quantities involved and they pressure pump it in, which requires larger than UK style fuel tank filler and breather outlets). The only real saving, bearing in mind that you pay to moor in most ports at about 4 euros/night not inc electrical hook up (more than that in honeypot towns), is that if you don't move away from your home mooring you don't need to but a Vignette (licence) and that the Vignette is half the cost of my UK narrowboat one when you do want to buy it. Roger
